Even experienced drivers sometimes make mistakes when it comes to making sure their cars are good to go. Everyone is guilty of driving a few miles with the emergency brake on at least once in their lives. One criminal was a little less aware, forgetting to turn on his headlights in the middle of the night on Oct. 24 while driving down Cushman Avenue. A police officer noticed the suspiciously stealthy car and pulled the driver and two passengers over. It turns out headlights weren’t the only essential the driver was forgetting, as the criminal admitted he didn’t have insurance, and neither he nor the other two passengers were wearing seatbelts, truly living on the edge of danger. When the officer ran the names of the three people in the car, one of the passengers even had a warrant for theft. The passenger was transported to Fife jail, and the driver was given citations for driving without headlights on a motor vehicle and operating a vehicle without insurance.
Some drunken drivers are identified by their reckless driving on the road, others by their inability to even make it out of the parking lot. This was the case on Oct. 24, when a UWT school patrol noticed a car stuck in a turnabout outside the school on Commerce Street. After attempting to exit three times, the driver appeared to give up and kept his car idling. Police arrived on the scene when the patrol officer approached the man in the car and noticed the smell of booze. When officers asked the man to get out of the car, they found that he could barely stand on his own. After failing the “touch your nose” test six times, police transported the man to Tacoma Police headquarters, where he blew a .198 and .191 on the BAC test, more than double the legal limit. He was then taken to Fife jail without incident.
Compiled by Derek Shuck